Aneurin Bevan is my hero

The NHS gets a bad press.

As an organisation founded in 1948, it is no wonder that it is struggling to keep up with the growing demands and expectations of an ageing population. The fundamental principle of a free at point of service healthcare system for all, is something that I am immensely proud to be a part of. It is consistently portrayed as a decaying and inefficient system, with no option other than privatisation viable to sustain it.

I think this is a mistake.

I have first hand experience of the dedication of NHS staff to ensuring effective and timely management for patients regardless of their social status. With privatisation will inevitably come prioritisation, and we will be in severe danger of losing the ethos of our healthcare system.

Despite the overarching belief that the NHS is an outdated model which needs renovation, England still has the best healthcare system in the world. I think it is pretty spectacular that from first presentation at A&E to diagnosis and initial management of complex diseases such as cancer and heart failure takes on average only 48 hours. And 4 of those will be spent waiting in A&E…

My colleagues and I consistently stay beyond our finishing time in order to update families about patients’ progress, or to deal with emergencies that inevitably seem to occur at 5:30 when you are crabby and tired after a long day and should have left the hospital already. There is a sense of shared responsibility, a sense of duty and an underlying pride at being able to provide the world’s best medical input for people who would be otherwise unable to afford it. Yes, there are days when the inefficiency stifles me, when I get irreparably frustrated with our lack of resources and the dissatisfaction of patients and staff alike, but on these days I try to take a step back and remember the principles that our system is based on, and the ethos we are working for, and then the shortcomings don’t seem to matter as much.

The NHS has become a political model, and as such it is not left alone long enough to gain level footing. Every new government has to have a different plan for saving the NHS, and as such none of them are given time to work. Instead of giving up on it, we need to accept that as an organisation it is always going to require more funding, it is always going to be inefficient (because how can you legitimately price health?)..instead of lamenting this, we should be proud of it. There are few better things to spend our money on than health provision. We should be praising NHS staff, and supporting them, bankrolling them, celebrating them. We still have a reason to be proud of our healthcare system. We should not condemn it just yet.